Female execs make big gains in Europe's auto sector

Amazing changes have taken place since Automotive News Europe named its first list of the 25 Leading Women in the European Automotive Industry in June 2008. The industry and world have survived the Great Recession that followed the Lehman Bros. collapse and caused a six-year vehicle-sales slump in Europe. Apple went from being a smartphone newcomer to giant in the sector. The iPad wasn’t born yet and an electric car from Apple was considered pure fantasy. Eight years ago Google was solidifying its place as a dominant internet search engine but no one was talking about it launching a driver-less pod that would completely change the way people view individual mobility.

The European automotive industry has also undergone massive changes since 2008, especially when it comes to the rise of female executives. Eight years ago no woman ran a European automotive brand – now there are two – and there were just a handful of females on the management boards at the region’s leading automotive companies – now nearly every brand has women in key positions.

As Automotive News Europe, in cooperation with our partner Deloitte, put together the current list of Europe's 25 most powerful female auto industry executives it was immediately evident that women have taken huge steps forward at all levels.

Today, Annette Winkler, who is the only executive to make the 2008 and 2016 Leading Women lists, is head of Daimler's small-car brand Smart and Linda Jackson is CEO at Citroen, making her a double winner when it comes to diversity as she is also the first British executive to run the iconic French brand.

A closer look at our list of Leading Women shows that 13 of our 25 winners are based in Germany, five are located in France, three in the UK, two in Sweden and one each in Spain and Belgium. Our winners were born in Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, England, Wales, Switzerland, Iran and the U.S.

The 2016 list honors one female executive each from Nissan and Toyota, which is an improvement on 2008 when neither Japanese company had a representative in our group of 25.

Trying to determine a specific sector where female executives are making the most progress in Europe is pointless. Why? Because women are earning top-ranking posts all over the organizational chart in areas such as sales and marketing, design, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, quality, safety and digitalization.

Women are also elevating to one of the toughest jobs in any industry: head of integrity and legal affairs. Our 25 Leading Women list includes two: Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt at Volkswagen Group and Renata Jungo Bruengger at Daimler. The two lawyers worked together at Daimler until the start of this year when Hohmann-Dennhardt moved to VW Group to help it deal with the legal ramifications of its emissions-cheating scandal. Hohmann-Dennhardt was succeeded by Jungo Bruengger, who came to Daimler in 2011 to head its legal department. Two other lawyers made our 2016 list: Mouna Sepehri of Renault and Ariane Reinhart of Continental.

In restarting the Leading Women in the European Auto Industryfranchise, ANE and Deloitte were encouraged by receiving more than 100 nominations for the award from around the region. The toughest job we had was reducing the list to 25. A number of the women who didn't make the list in 2016 will be strong candidates when we put together a next list in the future.

For this year's project we interviewed each of the 25 winners. The interviews will appear in a special supplement that will be printed later this month. The interviews are all available on our website now.

The Leading Women spoke candidly about the challenges they have faced as they have risen in a male-dominated industry. Most, however, agreed that as they proved themselves gender stopped being an issue. Still, it is rare to see a woman at the top of an automaker or supplier. We hope by recognizing the 25 Leading Women in Europe's auto industry that more opportunities will present themselves for qualified, talented female executives in the future.